UMO -- 2K15 CC tournament

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 22, 2015 2:20 PM

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BURLINGTON -- The 20th installment of the Conference Carolinas baseball tournament promises one thing -- there is no clear-cut winner when play begins Thursday morning on the Burlington Athletic Park diamond.

Any of the six participants could easily seize the automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.

"It's a good field, it really is ... the most even field of all six teams that I have seen in a while," said UMO head coach Carl Lancaster, whose team has won eight of the last 10 tournament crowns, including the 2014 title.

"I hope it's going to be fun. It's going to be interesting."

Fourth-seeded King (24-24 overall) and third-seeded Pfeiffer University (26-19) open tournament play at 11 a.m. Fifth-seeded Belmont Abbey (23-20) takes on Erskine (32-15) at 3 p.m.

UMO faces North Greenville in the nightcap at 7.

The double-elimination tournament concludes Sunday. Adult admission is $8 daily. A faculty/staff/student/senior citizen/child with proper indentification will be admitted for $5.

A weekend pass is $12.

The No. 17-ranked Trojans (35-12) head into the tournament with just four wins in their last seven outings. One defeat occurred against North Greenville, which won 3-1 behind Ryne Frankoff's four-hit, six-inning performance.

Adam Boghosian earned his 11th save in that game is favored to win one of the league's player-of-the-year awards.

"North Greenville is going to be a load for us," Lancaster said.

During its season-best 12-game win streak, Mount Olive got the timely hitting and consistent pitching from its bullpen. Justin Manning (.420 average), Jason Morozowski (team-high 70 RBI), Joe Koehler (57 hits), Zak Orrison (38 RBI) and Kilgore Gailmard (.372 average) have been the offensive mainstays. Manning, Morozowski and DeAndre Allen have appeared in all 47 starting lineups.

The Trojans hit .341 as a team.

But the consistency, said Lancaster, has dropped off at the plate in recent games. Opposing pitchers have "wisened up" and kept the Trojans guessing at the plate.

"We're better than what we've played, obviously, but I can't say that other people haven't played well against us, too," Lancaster said. "They've done their homework. We've done a poor job of making adjustments. I thought they would have already learned that. It's fun to watch kids get after it.

"That always seems to be the case when anybody plays us."

Lancaster -- as expected -- has gotten quality starts from Gunnar Kines (3.61 ERA), Derek Justice (2.80) and Kodi Whitley (4.21) on the bump. The trio has combined for 22 wins and 226 strikeouts in 161 innings of work.

The team ERA is an uncharacteristic lofty 5.28.

"Our starting pitchers have to keep us in the game, (get) defense behind them and get some timely hitting," Lancaster said. "It's the same (strategy) every year. If we can win the first couple of games and get into some other teams' bullpens early, I think we can be hard to beat."